Nucleic acid amplification reactions may fail to react because the target nucleic acid is absent (true negative) or because specific amplification is inhibited (false negative). Thus, understanding the source of reaction failure can impact the interpretation of a negative result. The use of a positive control can increase confidence that a negative result is a true negative by ruling out failure due to the reaction components. When nucleic amplification reactions are used as a means of detecting an infectious agent, positive controls are particularly useful for indicating that negative amplifications represent truly negative specimens.
Accordingly, improved methods for accurate detection of target nucleic acid molecules are urgently required.